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According to Robert Edgerton, in the Belgian Congo, colonial whites called Africans macaques—implying that they had lived in the trees until the Europeans arrived. The term sale macaque (filthy monkey) was occasionally used as an insult.[3] In the ceremony in 1960 in which Congo gained its independence from Belgium, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba gave a speech accusing Belgian King Baudouin of presiding over "a regime of injustice, suppression, and exploitation" before ad-libbing at the end, Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques! (We are no longer your macaques!)[2] Lumumba was reportedly still stung by being called a sale macaque by a Belgian woman years earlier.[4]

The failed re-election campaign of Republican U.S. SenatorGeorge Allen of Virginia generated much controversy after he used the word macaca in reference to a person of Indian ancestry. On August 11, 2006, at a campaign stop in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, George Allen twice used the word macaca to refer to S. R. Sidarth, who was filming the event as a "tracker" for the opposing Jim Webb campaign.

This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent.... Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.

Sidarth is an Indian American and was born and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia. Even though Allen claimed that he made up the word and said that he did not understand its derogatory meaning, a media outcry erupted following his use of the term. After two weeks of negative publicity, Allen publicly apologized for his statement and asserted that he in no way intended those words to be offensive.[citation needed]

The term "Macacawitz", referring to the September 2006 discovery of Allen's Jewish heritage (specifically Tunisian Jewish), was coined by conservative pundit John Podhoretz as a headline for a post in the National Review blog "The Corner".[10] A field organizer for Democratic Congressional candidate Al Weed resigned after she used the term in email to supporters of Weed.[11]

The controversy created by Allen's use of the term contributed to his narrow loss to Webb.[12]